Roberts’ The Greens have no understanding of Climate Change

I rise with enormous pride to say of the Greens’ MPI today: what a flog. The Greens have no understanding, let alone any deep understanding, because they rely on opinions, not data. I’ll say it again: the Greens have no understanding, let alone any deep understanding, because they rely on opinions, not data. That is why the Greens cannot withstand scrutiny.

Consider recent hurricanes in the North Atlantic and North America. Senator Whish-Wilson’s recent claims have been dishonest. Firstly, I want to honour the sad loss of life in the North Atlantic. But, then, I want to say the following facts. In the 10 years from 2007 to 2016, there were 10 hurricanes in the North Atlantic-North America area. In the 10 years from 1950 to 1959, there were 18—almost double. In the 10 years from 1910 to 1919, there were 21—slightly more than double the latest 10 years. And in the 10 years from 1880 to 1889, there were 27 hurricanes in that region—almost three times the current level.

Let’s consider the hurricanes that actually make landfall. In the last 12 years, there were none—zip, zero. Strong land-falling cyclones are still declining over the last 120 years even after cyclone Irma. That is why NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA, and the UN IPCC itself—that corrupt body—in its latest reports all admit that hurricane activity is decreasing.

Let’s look at something else. The Greens don’t seem to be worried about deaths. Deaths per year per million population in the USA have deceased from almost nine per million people in 1900 to almost two in 1920 and to almost zero in 2010. They’ve gone from almost nine deaths per million people per year in 1900 to almost zero in 2010. These are facts—hard, measured data. North America’s largest hurricane tragedy was in the Galveston hurricane where thousands died.

Similarly, the empirical evidence shows that there is no change in rainfall or flooding frequency, flooding severity or flooding duration. The floods in Brisbane in the 1890s were greater by far than the floods in any recent period in Brisbane. Drought severity, frequency and duration are lower now than in the past. Snowfall shows no changes. Temperature shows no changes—and I will come back to that. Ocean alkalinity shows no changes—that is the pH level. It’s alkaline not acidic, as alarmists like to claim. Ocean alkalinity shows complete uniformity. Sea levels show nothing unusual. Polar ice caps are increasing in the Arctic and fluctuating naturally in the Arctic. There are no changes occurring in climate.

So consider the Greens’ implicit warming claimed in their MPI—their last two words were ‘global warming’. Let’s consider temperatures. In the last 22 years—that’s more than half the satellite record, and that’s known to be by far the most accurate record for measuring tropospheric, atmospheric temperatures—more than half the temperature records in satellite measurements have shown no warming; no warming at all. In the last 160 years, the longest temperature trend was from the 1930s to 1976—40 years of, wait for it, cooling. And that was at a time when humans increased markedly their production of carbon dioxide. But it cooled. In the 1880s and 1890s in Australia, they were warmer than today; fact. The medieval warming period was warmer by far than today globally. The Roman warming period, 1,000 years or so before the medieval warming period, was warmer again. So there is no warming. In the absence of warming, we heard the claims of ‘global warming’ morph to ‘global climate change’. And now we hear the term ‘extreme weather’.

The CSIRO has made three presentations to us since I entered the Senate, and we have torn apart every one of them. I will be speaking more to that in the near future. The CSIRO cannot, in response to our request, prove anything unprecedented in climate. What’s more, in the first of their presentations they admitted there is no danger. More to come from that. But I want to get through and discuss the ramifications of this. What the Greens are claiming by distorting the science is anti-human. The reality is that as a result of hydrocarbon fuels and human creativity we have built levies and dams—until the Greens arrived. We can’t build them anymore in Australia. We have better building codes and better zoning, and we are dropping subsidies for insurance. The data shows that human fatalities have decreased and are continuing to decrease. That’s the reality. The fact is that ignorance and deceptions kill. And the poor in India and the poor in Australia pay. That is why the Greens’ position is anti-human. I am fiercely pro-human. That’s why I devoted nine years to understanding the science, getting the empirical scientific evidence and understanding cause and effect. That is why I remain pro-human.